If you haven't caught on, I am a PTA student...no, not a student of the Parent/Teacher Association. I am a Student Physical Therapist Assistant. This weekend I went to Lubbock, Texas for a 2 day Texas Physical Therapy Association Student Conclave. My school paid for the registration, and my PTA club paid for the hotel. I just had to get myself there. Lubbock is an hour flight to the northeast (or a dreadful 6 hour car drive which I opted out of). About 16 of us from my school flew together, including 3 teachers. It was my first time to stay in a hotel room with people I don't know outside of a class. That was an adventure in itself. I swear that bed I had to share wasn't even a queen. Oh well, 2 nights of intermitent sleep because of worrying I'd fall off or brush in to the other girl doesn't mean much on the grand scale of things.
The first day we arrived we went to the exhibit hall. This hall was full of vendors and reps from all sorts of companies in my field. They had every kind of freebie you could imagine, from chapstick to pens, and stress balls to first aid kits. Every table had handfuls of candy to load up on you. This exhibit will be much more useful for me next year when I am on the verge of job hunting. It opened my eyes to just how many options and roads there are in this field. One thing that peaked my interest was doing physical therapy for a children's home health agency. The rep was really friendly and will be in Austin a couple weeks and I can probably meet with him when he is here. If I can get my spanish up to par, I could open up my possibilites in the job market even more with great monetary incentives!
Friday night was the Student Assembly. We nominated and voted on a new student leadership board and had a keynote speaker telling us why PT's are wonderful. It was actually facinating to watch.
Saturday was a day of workshops. I went to one on EKG's, Wound Care, and Traumatic Brain Injuries. The Wound Care one was the most fascinating. I saw pictures of gaping holes in people, and the word "wound" just doesn't seem big enough of a description. I was shocked! They had some before and after pictures, it is a miracle that the body can restore some of the damage that we inflict on it. I am sure it will be very different when I see these kinds of wounds in person, but as far as seeing pictures goes, I can handle it fine. A classmate had to leave the lecture because it was making her sick. I learned that in the healing process, scabs are bad. Scabs keep the new skin from forming underneth and getting better quicker. So you know the advice of don't pick it off and let sores dry out? BAD! Wounds should stay clean and moist (but not wet)- covered and moist with something like Neosporan.
I won a drawing from an exhibit. Lucky lucky me, I got a basket full of wine, wine glasses, and bottle openers. Great, the one person on the trip who doesn't drink got the prize with alcohol. I decided it was silly to figure out how to bring it home on the plane and then figure out what to do with it, so I returned it. I took it back to the booth and said thanks, but I don't drink, so why don't you draw another name. They said- "This is a first". My classamates thought I was nuts, and I hoped it would spur a gospel discussion, but nobody really inquired why I don't drink. Guess I need to be a bit more proactive if I want to have gospel discussion. I'm such a chicken!
That night was the reception dinner. One of my teachers got the PTA Teacher of the Year award. He really is a great teacher. It was fun to cheer him on.
In addition to the scholastic stuff, I managed to run twice at they gym, study for an hour, rate 25 tests, and watch the UT football game. I proudly wore my UT sweatshirt in Texas Tech Red Raider land. Nobody tried to jump me, but I had no fear. I had some people tell me I was brave, I took it as a compliment!
We flew back on Sunday morning. I was SO excited last night to have my very own bed all to myself! I didn't have to turn over like flipping a pancake- flip, flip, flip...
I learned something about myself on this. I learned that although I can be a bit superficial sometimes and have felt a bit obessive about still being excited about my concert earlier this month, the one thing I am not is a woman of the world. I was shocked to find that people I respect in the classroom get out into the world, a filter falls out of their mouths and some became people I didn't really want to be around. I couldn't believe the language some used and the way they complained about the conference and hotel that was pretty much free. I was very disappointed with them, but at the same time, I am grateful that my ears were offended by it. Does that make sense? I would hope that my Spirit would be sensitive to the crassness of the world. I am glad that it is.
One to another busy week...
1 comment:
I agree with you . . . it is hard to get out into the "world" and see and hear what people do. Keep your standards high. I thought that I was going to crack up with your prize! Wahoo... they chose the right person for that prize. J/K. It sounds like you had a great time and learned a lot. I know that I have now learned about scabs. That will make Jacob happy. He is my picker in the family. Got to have at least one in a family.
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